Eric Berg

Eric Berg

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Eric Berg (c. 1972–) is an American antivaxxer, chiropractor, cholesterol denialist, conspiracy theorist and ketogenic diet advocate. Berg promotes pseudoscientific health advice and quackery. Berg is not a medical doctor. Berg practiced chiropractic for 29 years and is now a full-time YouTube blogger who has made thousands of videos offering health advice. Berg has over 4 million subscribers and claims to have made over 5000 videos.

Berg operates the Health and Wellness Center in Alexandria, Virginia. He describes himself as "one of the top ketogenic diet experts in the world".

Dubious health advice

Berg is not a dietician or physician. He obtained a Doctor of Chiropractic Degree in 1998 at Palmar College of Chiropractic in Davenport. Eric Berg advertises himself as "Dr" and received much criticism for this. He now adds a disclaimer to all of his videos stating "Dr. Eric Berg received his Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Palmer College of Chiropractic in 1988. His use of “doctor” or “Dr.” in relation to himself solely refers to that degree."

On his website. Berg has put a Quack Miranda Warning part of which reads "Information on this site is provided for informational purposes only, it is not meant to substitute medical advice provided by your physician or any other medical professional." Berg put a similar disclaimer on his videos claiming he is not offering medical advice, cure or treatment and his videos are for "general informational purposes only". However, Berg's articles and videos tell people not to eat certain foods otherwise they will become ill and that a ketogenic diet can improve "health conditions like heart disease, epilepsy or diabetes." He makes videos with titles such as "Always Fast During an Infection", "How to Prevent Blood Clots, Strokes & Heart Attacks? - Tips by Dr. Berg" and "The Best 3 Remedies for Psoriasis", so he does offer medical advice.

Anti-vaccination

See the main article on this topic: Anti-vaccination movement

Berg is an anti-vaccinationist and claims there are many toxins in vaccines. He also says there is "strong evidence" that vaccines are linked to autism. This belief, found amongst conspiracy theorists, is false. There is no link between vaccines and autism.

Ketogenic diet

Berg promotes a ketogenic fad diet which is not healthy (it's high in saturated fat), and completely impractical for most people:

Berg claims for maximum health, one should put their body into a permanent state of ketosis by eating a ketogenic diet which is extremely high in fat. Berg calls his keto program "Healthy Ketosis". On this diet 70% is fat and 20% is protein. This is totally unbalanced:

• People should eat a diet of full-fat organic dairy, wild-caught, grass fed, pasture-raised meat, fish, fowl, eggs, limited vegetables with no grains or sugar. Berg recommends that people eat grass fed beef, butter and steaks.
• All fruits should be avoided (except avocados, blackberries and raspberries)
• All starchy foods and grains should be avoided.
• Daily intermittent fasting. The overall goal is to eat one meal a day.
• Eat 4-5 eggs a day. Berg's advice is in opposition to health authorities who recommend one egg a day for healthy individuals and no more than 3 or 4 a week for those with high blood cholesterol, diabetes or heart disease. Moderate egg consumption (up to one a day) does not increase heart disease risk in healthy individuals. Berg's advice for all people to eat 4-5 eggs a day is misleading, and potentially dangerous for those with diabetes or heart disease.
• Berg says that a ketogenic diet can improve exercise performance. As of 2020 there is no reliable evidence for this claim. A recent systematic review found that a ketogenic diet does not have a positive or negative impact on physical performance compared with mixed macronutrient diets.

Cholesterol denialism

See the main article on this topic: Cholesterol denialism

Berg argues against the medical consensus by denying that high blood LDL cholesterol levels and consumption of saturated fat increase the risk of heart disease. He says that the ketogenic diet decreases total blood cholesterol levels, decreases LDL ("bad cholesterol"), decreases triglycerides and increases HDL ("good" cholesterol) levels. Berg does not cite any long-term studies to back up his claims. A 2013 meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials found that "Individuals assigned to a very-low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet achieved greater long-term reductions in body weight, triacylglycerol and diastolic blood pressure and greater increases in LDL cholesterol and HDL cholesterol levels than those assigned to a low fat diet." Therefore, Berg's claim that LDL-C levels decrease on a long-term ketogenic diet have no basis in fact.

Berg cherry-picks evidence that confirms his bias and ignores results from studies that contradicts his claims. He does not cite recent systematic reviews as references which is the way evidence-based medicine works. Berg cites only one scientific paper from the journal Nutrients, published by MDPI. The paper reported that randomized trials have shown that a ketogenic diet can decrease HDL and triglyceride levels but in opposite to Berg's claim most of the trials revealed an increase in LDL cholesterol levels and one study found no significant difference. Only one small sample study (66 obese patients) revealed a decrease in total blood cholesterol levels and reductions in LDL. There are no long-term studies that demonstrate patients on a high-fat ketogenic diet can decrease their LDL-C levels.

A 2019 review by the National Lipid Association Nutrition and Lifestyle Task Force concluded that although ketogenic diets may improve appetite control and triglyceride reduction they are not superior to other dietary approaches for weight loss, are difficult to maintain in the long term and have negative side effects. The review noted that studies have shown mixed effects on LDL-C levels, with some studies showing an increase due to the saturated fat content. Contrary to Berg, the review stated that very-low-carbohydrate diets are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular mortality.

Criticism

Some former patients have described Berg as a scammer for utilizing deceptive advertising tactics. In 2008, Berg was reprimanded and fined $1,500 for promoting bogus chiropractic muscle test techniques. He was ordered to stop using and promoting Body Response Technique (BRT), Nambudripad’s Allergy Elimination Technique (NAET), Contact Reflex Analysis (CRA), and testing with an Acoustic Cardiograph (ACG).

Public health scientist Sheila Kealey‏ has commented:

Some of his diet advice is extremely and unnecessarily restrictive (anti-wheat; anti-carbohydrate); he advocates weight loss based on a bogus hormone body type (adrenal, ovary, liver, thyroid); talks about “fat burning” hormones (they don’t exist); and includes a "detox phase" in his diet plan (a term that should raise your quack alarm).

As typical with many of these so-called health experts, his website includes a shop with unproven supplements (e.g. adrenal body type package, estrogen balance kit) that beyond being a complete waste of money, could quite possibly do you more harm than good.

See also

• Dr. Axe